Book 1 / 15
Being the first part in a long fantasy series, a fair bit of time is spent establishing the world, the characters, and the lore. Despite this overhead, the author has managed to weave a story of adventure and suspense that swoops you in from the start. If you’ve read Lord Of The Rings or any of the other fantasy novels, you’ll find a fair bit of similarities and a sprinkling of the most common tropes. Refreshingly, Robert Jordan has kept his focus on the plot without delving into meaningless drivel about trees and outbursts of songs like Tolkien.
The story isn’t intellectual nor does it present the readers with any “serious” subjects under the garbs of magic and mystery. It is not a philosophical discourse on race and class, nor is it a reflection on human life and misery. The book does not pretend to be something it is not. It’s a simple, straight-forward story of a chosen-one and the prophecy he is bound to fulfill, and it keeps that focus well until the end, without diluting itself to make it more palatable for a broader range of readers.
If you’re looking for an engaging fantasy novel that you can breeze through and enjoy without putting in a lot of mental effort, then you should definitely try this book, even if you do not end up following the rest of the series.